An Open Letter (Part 2) to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet by DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Ipoh Timor Lim Kit Siang on Tuesday, 2nd September 2008:

5. Zero tolerance for corruption

Let the Cabinet declare a new National Integrity Plan objective of zero tolerance for corruption – with Malaysia ranked among the top 10 countries which are least corrupt in the world.

Although there is a flurry of arrests by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), Malaysians are reminded of the earlier flurry of ACA activities in the first few months of the new Abdullah premiership which finally fizzled out into nothing – with Malaysia’s ranking in the annual Transparency International Corruption Perception Index plunging from No. 37 in 2003 to No. 43 in 2007.

Are the Prime Minister and Cabinet prepared to give full liberty and authority to the ACA to fight corruption even against Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers, Mentri-Menteri Besar and top Barisan Nasional leaders without getting any greenlight from the Prime Minister?

6. End the brain drain

Is the Cabinet prepared to admit that one fatal mistake of our nation-building policy which has led to our diminishing international competitiveness and why Malaysia has lost out to South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore in the past half-a-century and continuing to trail behind more and more countries is injustice and discrimination meted out to the best and brightest talents driving them overseas.

Is the Cabinet prepared to end this crippling denial syndrome to end the brain drain of the best and brightest talents overseas – in particular stemming the brain-drain to Singapore by reinstating the principle of meritocracy and ensuring that Malaysia’s best and brightest, regardless of race, can get the best educational and employment opportunities in their own country?
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An Open Letter to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet by DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Ipoh Timor Lim Kit Siang on Tuesday, 2nd September 2008:

YAB Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister,
YB-YB Cabinet Ministers,

Ten challenges which the Cabinet must address tomorrow to demonstrate that it has learnt the lessons of the two political tsunamis in six months

I believe the overwhelming majority of Malaysians have one common reaction when they read or learnt of the news of the announcement by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukudu of his sudden resignation yesterday – when Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is going to resign as Malaysian Prime Minister despite his earlier announcement of the power-transition schedule in June 2010.

This may be unfair but this is a fact. Why is this so when four short years ago, the Prime Minister had won the country’s biggest mandate in the 2004 general election winning an unprecedented 91 per cent parliamentary majority?

This was one of my thoughts when I hiked up Penang Hill “48” this morning, which I had not done for a very very long time. The hour hike up and down Penang Hill “48” provided me with a very conducive atmosphere to think about the multiple crisis of confidence afflicting Malaysia – political, economic, educational, judicial, institutional and nation-building.

The idea to pen this Open Letter also came from this hike as the Cabinet meeting tomorrow is the first one after the Permatang Pauh by-election, presenting an acid test whether Barisan Nasional government has learnt the lessons of the two “political tsunamis” in six months to save the country from the multiple crisis of confidence confronting the nation.

There are at least ten challenges which the Cabinet must address tomorrow: Read the rest of this entry »